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The restof the dinner is uneventful. Clair tries to make small talk but isn’t very successful. After a handful of questions for Jade that she can’t possibly answer, like ‘would you like to go to school’ and ‘what’s your favorite meal,’ she gives up. The food is fantastic as always, though, so I stuff my face, and so do the guys.
Jade, on the other hand, eats very little. I thought someone as malnourished as her would be starving, but instead, she takes less than half the food I did as a first serving and still only eats a small bit of it before waiting for everyone else to finish.
Rick continues to throw dirty looks her way whenever he thinks he can get away with it, but I noticed, and Jade also seemed to.
Spencer seems overly focused on his food, almost as if he can ignore her into not being there.
For the last few minutes of dinner, James talks about work, letting us know all about the sex trafficking leader Trent was able to bring into custody. The guy talks about him like he’s his prized son, and it takes everything in me not to roll my eyes; if only he knew Trent had fucked it up.
Rick completely ignores him. He’s more than used to this and couldn’t care less. His dad always wanted him to follow in his footsteps and go into law enforcement, but that isn’t what Rick wanted, and Rick never does anything he doesn’t want to.
I keep waiting for Jade to add to the story for us to have to find a way to explain being there or shut her down. But It never comes, and by the end of dinner, Spencer and Rick look almost as confused as I feel.
Jade thanks Clair and James for the food and for allowing her to stay here before a yawn overtakes her.
“Oh dear, you must be exhausted. You’ve been up for so long. Why didn’t you say something sooner?” Ever the worrying mother, Clair jumps to attention.
“No, it’s okay. I’m fine, really.” Jade holds her hands up to soothe her, but now that I’m looking, I can see the clear signs of exhaustion all over her face. She did a great job of keeping it hidden.
“Boys, could one of you please show Jade to her room? She will be taking over the guest room across from Zander.”
Oh shit, she’s going to be rooming near me. I’m not sure if that’s great or terrible, though I’m smart enough to realize it could have been worse if they had decided to give her one of the basement rooms with Rick.
“I’ll show her.” Rick says as he pushes away from the table. He gets up and heads down the hall towards the room without so much as a glance back to see if she’s following.
Jade stands and follows him after pushing her chair in as if she’s in no hurry. Rick’s going to have to try harder if his goal is to intimidate her. As soon as she disappears around the corner, I turn to look at Spencer.
“Come on, let's make sure he doesn’t kill her.” He says under his breath as he stands. I do the same, and we follow after them, throwing a quick thank you to Clair as we go.
By the time we get down the hall to them, Jade is in the room looking around with something I can only describe as wonder in her eyes. She sits down on the edge of the bed and gives a little bounce, her smile still a permanent fixture on her face.
Rick stands just inside the door with his arms folded, leaning against the wall, looking upset at the world. I can’t imagine what has him so upset as he watches her simply enjoying the space. As soon as we enter the room, Rick kicks the door closed behind us. Jade’s eyes track each of us while continuing to explore.
“I’ll ask you again, why are you here?” Rick all but growls at her, and I can’t help but sigh. He’s still on this, huh?
“I told you I was invited.” Jade tells him as she gets up off the bed and heads to one of the other doors in the room. It’s her ensuite bathroom. All the rooms on this floor have one but judging by her reaction, you would think it was a room full of gold.
“If you have an issue with me being here, you should take it up with your mother. I can always find somewhere else, but I won’t be the one to turn down her hospitality.” She turns away from the bathroom and walks right up to Rick tilting her head up to look him in the eyes before she pokes him right in the chest. “So either tell her so I can go or get used to me being around.” Her face is blank for a moment, and seeing her without the smile I’m already used to makes her seem older, harder somehow.
It lasts all of two seconds before her smile is back. She drops her hand back to her side and walks over to her closet, pulling out an oversized shirt I was sure I donated a few weeks ago.
I look down at the clothes she has on, and it clicks why they look familiar. I’ve seen Clair in them before. The shirt she has in her hands now is one of my old band tees I had put in Clair's donation box.
While it sucks she doesn’t have anything of her own yet, I’m actually happy Clair has that box now that it’s getting good use. Of course, she wouldn’t have anything with how suddenly she showed up; nobody knew she was coming until she was here.
At least, that’s why I tell myself I’m happy. The smile on my face has nothing to do with the fact that the shirt is mine. Well was.
“Well, if that’s all, I’m going to go to bed now. But, if you decide you want to yell at me for anything else that’s out of my control, you know where to find me.” She says over her shoulder before she starts to undress.
Oh shit, why is she just undressing with us in the room like this? I open my mouth to say just that, but Rick beats me to it.
“Jade!” His voice comes out less growly this time and even has a hint of concern in it. Jade must hear it, too, because she drops her shirt and turns back to face him.
“What?”
“You shouldn’t just undress in front of people.” He tells her, and her cheeks turn an adorable pink as if she’s embarrassed before she nods.
“Sorry.” She says, her voice low, barely more than a whisper. I want to punch Rick for being so hard on her. Instead, I glare at him, and he has the decency to look minorly ashamed even if he doesn’t offer her an apology like he probably should.
